Vasara aims to provide all of the functionality of Visual Mode.lua, but with an interface more intuitive to newcomers or infrequent mappers. To that end, Vasara comes with a full GUI explaining all keyboard shortcuts, and mouse control where appropriate.
The primary mode, Visual Mode, is where you apply and align textures and lighting. Aim and "paint" with the primary trigger. Hold the trigger and drag to align textures. Use the second trigger to sample textures and lights. The header lists key controls for actions like Jump or Undo, and the footer summarizes your current texture settings.
Tap the Mic key for Choose Texture mode, which offers a clickable grid of textures in the current collection. Switch collections by clicking the buttons at the bottom. Or, use the keyboard shortcuts to cycle through textures or collections.
The Action key activates Options mode, where you control how you texture. This mode includes a real-time preview of all lights on the map. The texture preview also shows how your current texture mode will look.
The Map key activates Teleport mode, to jump around the map. Click the primary trigger to jump to the polygon in the crosshair. To teleport to areas you can't see, use the Previous and Next Weapon keys to select a different polygon by number. The current polygon is highlighted in the view and on the overhead map.
When you apply a control panel or switch texture, you'll enter an editing mode to configure it. Switch types are on the left, options like the controlled platform or tag are on the right.
So this is a GUI for Visual Mode.lua?
No. Vasara is a separate tool, and does not work in conjunction with Treellama and Irons' Visual Mode. It's a different way to texture your maps, and shares some (but not all!) key commands. Vasara can do everything Visual Mode does, and contains some code from Visual Mode 3, but that's all.
So this replaces Visual Mode?
No. Vasara is a different project built by different people (Hopper and Ares Ex Machina), and both will remain on Simplici7y. Treellama and Irons were not involved in Vasara's development, so please don't blame them for anything you hate about Vasara. Which texturing tool you use is completely up to you; you don't need Vasara if you like Visual Mode, and you don't need Visual Mode if you like Vasara.
So how do I use it?
Install Vasara into Aleph One's plugins folder (it's not a Weland plugin). Vasara needs two plugins to provide the texturing and the GUI. Make sure both "Vasara HUD" and "Vasara Script" are enabled when you use it. You can leave any HUD plugins on (unless they come after Vasara in the plugins list), but be sure to turn off the Visual Mode plugin.
So who's responsible for this?
Hopper and Ares Ex Machina did the design and coding, except for the parts we swiped from Visual Mode, which in turn swiped ideas from Forge, and so on back to the dawn of the universe. So, take your pick for assigning credit, but send bug reports or feature requests to
Hopper or
Ares Ex Machina.
. Thanks for the quick response!
